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While you're frying up some eggs and bacon, we're cooking up something else: a way to celebrate today's food holiday.

January 10 is National Bittersweet Chocolate Day!

Not all chocolate is created equal, and not all chocolate tastes the same. Chocolate, which the Mayans thankfully discovered, is classified by the amount of fat in it. Chocolate starts out as chocolate liquor, the nib of the cacao bean that’s been ground down or melted. A fat, usually cocoa butter, is then added to this and it forms a solid substance. The amount of fat and sugar mixed into the liquor determines how the chocolate is classified.
The classifications we’re most used to are the dark and milk varieties. Under the dark chocolate classification is bittersweet chocolate, and it tastes exactly as the name implies. According to the Food and Drug Administration, to be called bittersweet, the chocolate needs to contain at least 35% chocolate liquor. The rest of the mixture is cocoa butter, sugar, vanilla and an emulsifying agent.

Bittersweet chocolate is most often used in baking. It’s good for recipes that have sugar in them as it helps keep the dish from being cloyingly sweet. Next time you bake, try using a combination of bittersweet and semi-sweet chocolate together. And remember, the higher the percentage of chocolate liquor, the better the chocolate is for you!